The Most Popular Baby Names in Iowa

Justin Bieber is one of the biggest names on the planet. He was born in 1994 in London, Ontario, Canada. That same year, there were 185 Justins and 15 Justines born in the Hawkeye State.

Justin has been a popular name in Iowa, apparently, with hundreds of baby boys christened that way. The name hit its zenith in Iowa in 1980 with 605. The year of the fewest Iowa Justins? The year was 1957, with five.  

That little tidbit comes from our searchable database of Iowa baby names from 1910 to 2011.

Curious about what people were named in Iowa? You can use the tools above to search by name, year or gender to explore questions such as:

• How many Iowa babies got my name the year I was born?
• What was the most popular year for my name in Iowa?
• Any babies of the opposite sex get my name?

The data comes from the Social Security Administration, which released baby name data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the same period.

The government excluded names used fewer than five times in a year in order to protect privacy.

The information comes from people who applied for Social Security cards and were born in the United States after 1879. As the SSA notes, "many people born before 1937 never applied for a Social Security card, so their names are not included in our data. For others who did apply, our records may not show the place of birth, and again their names are not included in our data."

So, what did Iowa moms and dads most often dub their babies in 1910, the first year of this database? Well, that would be Helen and John. And 101 years later, in 2011? Happy birthday to Carter and Emma.

This database and story was originally written by Kurt Greenbaum.

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